Large PB on the PBC, following a rib cook

[BruceB]

Hi all

I have a large bone-in pork butt to go into the PBC sometime late Sunday night, since I don't think I'll have time to start it Monday AM to take away as a big pan of pulled pork by late afternoon.

We'll be doing 5 racks of ribs Sunday afternoon, with a mealtime of 6 PM, so when this monster 11 lb pork butt goes on maybe by 9PM, the coals will have been going for close to 8 hours. Should I just top up the basket with freshly lit briquets, or do I need to go through pulling the basket out, and dumping the ash, which could be dicey with a hot PBC? Maybe some unlit briquets topped with lit ones from a chimney?

I'm expecting the PB to take 12 to 15 hours, is that reasonable?

[SurfsUp]

Man I am not experienced with a cook like that but that is pushing it from my perspective... I might cut that big boy in half and start it early Monday morn on a fresh PBC load... more bark

[Jerod Broussard]

You need to dump the ash if using Kingsford. Too much ash production.

You might also consider separating that butt. I have done 11.5 pounders, I do 5-6 pounders now to get a higher bark:meat ratio.

[_John_]

Putting it on at night just leaves too much to chance and keeps you up all night, plus it will be done way early.

I would start it in the morning, I wrap at some point every cook, mostly for moisture. I can finish just about anything in 8 hours or less. I did a 13 pounder that took 10, but I was in no hurry so I didn't wrap it until late. I now use Jerod's method which is to wrap when the bark is how I like it. I would personally start early and crack the lid to keep as close to 300 as possible until you get some good crust. Now this is just from personal experience, and every butt is different but if you aren't through the stall and at 170 about 4 hours from dinner then wrap that sucker up, you should be able to get from the 160's to 200 in 2 hours leaving plenty of time to rest.

[Belco54]

I had a very similar cook about a month ago. I had a nine pounder that finished in just under 6 hours. I placed it in a 170 degree oven while the baby backs cooked. I added a chimney of lit coals for the rib cook and three hours later we were eating. The pulled pork was very juicy after resting for three hours.

[BruceB]

Thanks, everyone. I'm going to go with the start over in the morning plan, and probably separate the butt. Seems safer all around.

[_John_]

Did you get it on in time?

[BruceB]

Did you get it on in time?

The PB goes in tomorrow morning, I just finished prepping the rib racks for today. They go in the PBC in about 4 hours.

[BruceB]

Well, the rib cook went great. Probably the best ribs I've done so far it the PBC. Good bark, lots of moisture even after 5 hours, and done just as they are supposed to be, not falling off the bone but come off easy with a bite. I didn't get pictures of the finished racks, the guests were tasting them before I got the hooks out! I had two sauces on the side, the KC Classic and the Tennessee Hollerin' Whiskey, both made up yesterday. People couldn't decide which they liked best.

The PB is dri-brined and resting in the refrigerator, it will go on in the morning.

[PBCJim]

Wow, Bruce. I did ribs yesterday and they were a tad overdone after 3 hours so am surprised yours weren't carbon blocks after 5 hours. My pit temps cruising in the 250 - 268 range. I'm struggling a bit with the predictability of the cook times. Last time I did ribs, they were perfect after about 3.5 hours total time. There were a few differences in rubs and my initial theory is the first time I left the racks whole, this time I cut them in half. Think I've got the intake set right finally, that's the good news. BTW, congrats on the cook, just wanted to throw out there the contrast in cooks.

[Huskee]

W/o pics we'll have to take your word for it Bruce! Glad everything worked out, sounds like your weekend is off to a killer start!

[BruceB]

W/o pics we'll have to take your word for it Bruce! Glad everything worked out, sounds like your weekend is off to a killer start!

There is one complete un-ravaged rack left wrapped in the fridge, I'll have to get a day-old pic

Best compliment is everyone eating and lovin' it.

[BruceB]

Ok, Part 2 in progress. The big Lump O' PB went on a 7:30. Starting temps 255F in the barrel, and 38F in the meat.

going to crank up the barrel to 320F + and see where it settles.

edit: 25 minutes after closing the cover, the temp is stuck at 312F. I'm going with this for a while.

[fzxdoc]

Keep the updates coming, Bruce. Thanks for them. I'm going to be making a PB next weekend, so it's good and timely info. Did you leave that bone-in PB whole at 10lb or did you end up splitting it?

Kathryn

[BruceB]

Hi fzxdoc

I ended up leaving the PB whole, almost 11 lbs.

The temp started climbing again shortly after my last post, so at 325F I foiled two rebar ends, and the temp dropped to just over 250F. In the spirit of experimenting, I took the foil off and the PBC has stabilized at 268F, perfect!.

Two hours later, still holding at around 270F, and the meat temp just hit 120F. Lots more smoke from the rebar holes, the first hour there was almost no smoke.

So, 3 hours in things are moving along nicely. Onward to the stall.

[BruceB]

2 PM about 6:45 into the cook, it's sitting at 170F. I'm going to wrap it now. PBC is down to 233F.

[BruceB]

Got it wrapped and onto the grate by 2:30. It was about 167F internal.

I put the lid on, and left one rod out to get the cooker back up to temp. It was starting to worry me, no movement at all on the meat temp, but just now it started ticking upward. Cooker at about 272F. Just waiting now...

[fzxdoc]

So how did it turn out, Bruce? I'm eager to hear the rest of the story.

Kathryn

[BruceB]

It turned out great !! It took a little over an hour to get up to just over 200F on the grate. I had cracked the cover to get the barrel to about 340F. The internal temp wasn't going up much at all, sitting in mid 170s, and just as I was about to shift it to the oven, I tried some other probe locations and they were all just over 200, right at the magic 202 and 203F, confirmed with the Thermopop. Into a pan still wrapped, and off to the kid's house.

We pulled it after about an hour of resting, it came apart so easily, and was delicious!

[_John_]

Glad to hear it went so well, I see the flag now but didn't see it before, kept missing the update and it got buried.

Nevermind, that flag is to mark as spam...